Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-305) and index
In the pear grove : the romance of Leander, Lorenzo, and Castalio -- The decomposition of Charles Brockden Brown : sympathy in Brown's letters -- The transformation, the self devoted, and the dead recalled : sympathy in Brown's fiction -- The unacknowledged tie : young Emerson and the love of men -- Too good to be believed : Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans -- The heart ruled out : Melville's Palinode
This title weaves together literary criticism and historical narrative to describe the strong friendships between men that supported and inspired some of America's greatest writing - the Gothic novels of Charles Brockden Brown, the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the novels of Herman Melville. The book traces the genealogy of these friendships through a series of stories. Throughout, this book demonstrates the many ways in which the struggle to commit feelings to paper informed the shape and texture of American literature
